The Lambertville record., 1887-01-05
aIANr ssEpwoon rRrEs.
How the Choppers mako Them
ReadY for Marker.

hAGaU3 A0F fbUttzo4s
In Sononla, Mendoolno and Humboldt
counties, reaching from the Golden Gate TO
Oregon, are immense redwood forests cover
Dg an area from two to twenty miles wide
and nearly two hundred miles long, from
which millions of feet of lumber are now cut
annually. Redwood is tho most valuable
imber in the State. As yet no railroad tra-
verses this territory, but work has been
begun on lines which will soon bring the
numbering camps within easy reach of the
market. The redwood is coniferous ever
green resembling in some respects the cy-
press. The wood, which is extensively used
,n the Pacific slope for building end is seen
N recent houses in Boston and Chicago, is of
fine red color, but fades slowly when ex-
posed to the light The shrinkage is
principally lepgthwise, and in California
he wood is very popular. The timber land
q exceeding valuable, as single trees are
often worth 5000 OF 500, the current price
If redwood being GIG to $50 per thousand.
trip 10 redwsSd numbering camp is full
Of interest The operations are on scale
unknown In other regions, and the hauling
$ entirely overland. As one draws near the
choppers settlement the half.ohafrod stuInps
give the first adequate idea of the immense
sizc of the redwoods. Although their cir-
sumference Is not so great as that Of the
Yosemite trees, many measure so feet
around. and have an area on cross section
'ix feet from the ground Of 800 feet. In
height they have no squalls. When q man
stands ut the base Of tree $50 feet high he
Is mere pigmy, and feels bis insignificance.
Great skin is exhibited in telling a redwood.
Early in the work ten-foot post will. be
erected in the ground fifteen or twenty feet
from the base, which the falling tree will
drive ont of sight. 1t rarely fails to do so.
The choppers anaer-eat e about one-thiri
Of the way through on the side toward the
post, then with cross-out saw they work
from the opposite side toward the first ~
cision
Leaving narrow strip uncut, they 1eJs
wedges to toppic the giant over 4 ! the
prescribed path. When felled, the tree is
quickly stripped Of tho scant foliage ON the
upper third of its length and sawed into
sections twelve and twenty y-four1 sseet long.
The bark, one to two inches deep, is remnv
ed with wedges and iron bars by the strip
pers, and then the bull-whaekers take
charge of the sections to transfer them 10
The mills. Sixteen ard often twenty-five
oxen arc required to move the enormous
logs. II Is a science TO handle snch n team
yet expert bull-whackera, who receive from
$150 to 5000 a month, do II by word Of
mouth. rarely applying the goad The
track TO tae mill trasa@ay is creased behind
the oxen by the water packers. who wet the
ground from buckets Of water carried across
the shoulders in Ghiuese fashion. BY great
exertions gang Of tn men can fell aud
transport one redwood 10 the mill ia day.
Within year the lumberlnen's attacks on
the big trees have increased very rapid.
~ aud whole forests are now being devas-
tated as fast as the shoppers can work. At
present seventeen humber companies are
operating in the redwood region. In ten
years, If this destruction 10 not checked,
big trees will exisa-lh California oniy AZ
cufiositias